Slave With A Hidden Power
by Wiccan Blade
Summary: When the high priest finds a slave girl beaten up in a back alley and brings her back to the palace; will love blossom between the two? COMPLETE!
1. Default Chapter

Slave with a Hidden Power

She was found on a back road by the high priest and she was severely beaten and unconscious. The priest, though he didn't know why, picked her up and brought her to the palace, laying her on a makeshift bed in his chambers. He tended to her wounds and noticed the silver collar around her neck showing that she was a slave to a master in the middle class. What surprised him though were the many scars from being cut on the wrists. He knew that in order for her to survive, the cuts would have to be attended to immediately after they were made. He noticed scars from a whip on her legs and a scar on her neck just above the collar that was very possibly made by a whip. He also saw fresh whip marks through the rips in her clothes; several being on her back, and sides. He was interrupted in his examination of the slave by a knock on his door.

"My pharaoh?!" He said after he opened the door.

"Seto, you were supposed to meet me in the throne room a half an hour ago." The pharaoh stated.

"Oh, sorry, I got a little side tracked." He apologized showing the pharaoh in to see the unconscious slave in his room.

"So, this is what side tracked you; you went to town and bought a new slave?" The pharaoh guessed.

"No Yami, actually, I found her dumped on a back road beaten and unconscious. I don't know why, but I felt compelled to bring her with me." He explained.

"Well, the gods wouldn't allow something like this to happen if there wasn't something about the girl that could be useful to us." Yami stated.

It was at that moment that the girl came to. The priest and the pharaoh watched her as she slowly lifted her head and whimpered at the pain she was feeling. She looked at the floor first and then at the finely furnished room that she was in. 

            'But I was thrown onto the back road behind my master's house." She thought, still looking around.

Suddenly, she started gasping for air as the pharaoh and the priest saw the collar glow white and start constricting around her neck. The girl knew her master was pissed and her vision started to get blurry as her air supply to her brain was slowly being cut off. The priest took the rod and aimed it at the collar; with one blast, the collar dropped to the ground and the girl took in big gulps of air. Seto noticed just then that the collar wasn't only cutting off her air supply, but it was also cutting into her neck. The slave rubbed her neck gingerly before looking at the collar, and then looking to where the blast that had freed her had come from. She was shocked when she saw the high priest and the pharaoh watching her, and immediately lowered her eyes to the ground, trying her best to bow even though she was in severe pain. As she heard the footsteps of the two men draw near to her, she refused to raise her head. The high priest put a finger under her chin and raised her head to look at him. He looked into her eyes that were a sparkling shade of aqua.

"What do you think Yami, should I take her as a new slave?" The priest asked feeling the slave tremble in fear.

"You can take her as your slave if you wish, but you first must go to her previous master and buy her from him; we may be at a higher status, but we still have to follow our laws." Yami answered.

"I will have her cleaned up, and her cuts bandaged, then I will head to town with her to buy her from her previous master." Seto said as he called in Anzu to take his slave to be cleaned.

Anzu came in and lead the slave, who was walking painfully to the bathing chambers.

            "What's your name?" she asked softly as she helped the slave girl to slowly enter the water.

            "Isabel." The girl answered quietly as she hissed at the pain of the hot water on her cuts.

"You'll be fine; there are many healing herbs in that water that you're bathing in, and they'll not only help to dull the pain, but they'll also help your wounds to heal." Anzu explained as she slowly cleaned Isabel's wounds and started gently cleaning her hair with sweet smelling oils.

When Anzu rinsed the hair, she was surprised to see the girl's hair was a beautiful shade of black with indigo streaks through it. After Anzu had Isabel dressed in an outfit with gold and silver trim, she added an armband on each arm. She brushed Isabel's hair out and wound some gold thread onto a few strands of black hair. 

"The high priest will add wristbands and a collar to show that you are his slave." Anzu explained when she was finished and lead Isabel back to Seto's chambers.

"High Priest, Isabel is ready." Anzu said after she knocked on his door.

Seto opened the door to see a startlingly attractive young woman before him. He brought her into his chambers where he had two gold wristbands outlined in silver and sapphire with sapphires and emeralds scattered around them, and a gold collar with an engraving of the millennium rod in the front, outlined in silver and sapphire, with sapphires and emeralds scattered around it sitting on a pillow. Seto noticed his slave gazing at the pillow and said, 

            "Those will be added after we go to your master and I buy you from him."

Seto saw her shudder at the new information.

            "Anzu said your name is Isabel, right?" he asked.

Isabel just nodded and kept her eyes to the floor. Seto walked up to her and grabbed her gently by the wrist leading her out of the palace and onto the streets. She showed him the way to her master's house and he knocked on the door as he noticed Isabel taking a step back, and fear growing in her eyes. The door swung open to reveal a big man that was dressed in peasant's clothes and was very well groomed; he looked down at Isabel and lashed out at her. 

"Where have you been you dejected slave?!" He snapped at her getting ready to strike her as she recoiled.

Seto grabbed his wrist roughly and seethed,

            "Don't you dare strike her! I'm here to make a deal with you."

"Then with all do respects mister high priest, come in." her master said while sending her a deadly glare. "What can I do for you?" he asked as the high priest took a seat.

"I'll get straight to the point; you can let me buy her from you." Seto said sternly.

"With all do respect, I do not wish to get rid of her, you see, I just barely broke her in." He said smoothly.

"What do you mean, 'just barley broke her in'?" Seto asked suspiciously.

"Well, you see, I just bought her two weeks ago for ten pieces of silver." He explained.

"I'll pay you five pieces of gold for her." Seto bargained.

The man's eyes went wide and he said, "Done! Here's the lout's deck." He tossed a deck of cards to Seto.

Seto was surprised, but he caught the deck and then fished around in his coin pouch for five pieces of gold. Finding them, he gave them to the man and left as quickly as possible. He looked down at Isabel who had her head down and her eyes focused on the ground.

            "I believe these are yours." Seto said, causing Isabel to look up at him startled and to take the cards.

            "Thanks master." She said softly putting her head back down.

Feeling the familiarity of his masters touch on his card, Mr. Volcano came out of his card causing Isabel to stop dead in her tracks, since he put a hand on her shoulder alerting her to his presence. Seto felt the halt and turned around to see a surprising sight; a duel monster was behind Isabel and she was talking to him. Seto caught bits of the conversation going on between the two; noticing how soft and gentle Isabel's voice was.

            "Volcan, yo no llamo tu. (1)" Isabel whispered.

"Master, please, speak in English. I know you didn't call me, I felt your touch on my card and I had to see you again. Since that bastard master of yours took all of us away from you, I missed you very much; we all have." He explained.

"I know Volcan, but you must know; promise me you won't lose your temper?"

"Yes, I promise master."

"I've been bought again; I have a new master now, and judging by his attitude toward my other master, I feel that I can trust him not to cause harm on me unless I actually deserve it." She explained.

"Your other master beat you for no reason?!!!" Volcan shouted, his temper rising.

"You promised me you wouldn't lose your temper. In my previous master's eyes, the reason for beating me was because he was bored." She scolded Volcan; and then explained her previous master's reason for beating her.

The sound of someone clearing their throat brought the two's attention to the high priest.

            "Aren't you going to introduce me Isabel?" Seto asked.

            "Yes of course master; this is Volcan; he is one of my cards, and my friend." She said.

"Isabel, I'm glad to know him and to know how you think of me, but we should be getting back to the palace." Seto explained.

Isabel realized that the high priest heard her explain what she thought about him to Volcan and lowered her head in embarrassment before replying,

"Yes master" and calling Volcan back into his card.

They reached the palace and stopped in the throne room so that Seto could speak to Yami.

"Yami, I have succeeded in buying her from her previous master; but it seems that she has the power to call on monsters." Seto explained to the pharaoh.

"Really, well, this is startling considering slaves aren't supposed to have that ability." Yami looked down at Isabel, his eyes showing no emotion.

"It has also come to my attention pharaoh, that her other master was very abusive to her; he lashed out at her as soon as he opened his door and saw her. I've also heard that he would beat her for the simple fact that he was bored." Seto explained feeling Isabel grow tense.

"Seto, you know that it is common for masters to beat their slaves for whatever reason they see fit." Yami explained.

"Yes, but pharaoh, beating a slave because you're bored?" Seto questioned.

Yami thought for a moment and then asked,

            "How often did your master beat you for disobeying him?"

            "None." Came the quiet reply.

            "Am I right in assuming then, that he beat you out of boredom all the time?" The pharaoh asked.

A nod and a visible shiver from Isabel told Yami that she was not a disobedient slave; but she was beaten nonetheless. 

            "Isabel, how old are you?" Yami asked.

            "Sixteen." She answered shaking.

            'That's two years younger than Seto and me.' Yami thought.

At this, Yami called a guard over and told him to go get Shadi. The guard left immediately and returned five minutes later with a man that wore a turban and a golden key around his neck.

            "You called milord?" Shadi asked.

            "Shadi, can your millennium key go into a person's mind and show memories?" Yami asked.

"No, it only shows the soul room of the person. Isis' millennium necklace can bring you into memories of the past." Shadi answered.

"Guard, go get Isis; in the meantime, Shadi, look into this girl's mind and tell me what her soul room holds." Yami ordered.

Shadi put his key to Isabel's head and turned it entering her mind. He came across a door that was dark blue and closed. He opened the door and carefully stepped in watching for any traps; there were none. All he saw in the room was a deck of duel monsters cards; the room itself was a gloomy gray and radiated innocence but a sadness also lingered along with fear. This confused him; it was very rare that a person that was innocent would have sadness and fear within their soul room at the same time. Shadi exited her mind and with a confused look on his face, he put the key to Yami's head showing him what he saw in her soul room. When the key was pulled away from Yami's head, he too, looked confused.  At that point Isis entered the throne room.

"You called my pharaoh?" She asked.

"Yes, Isis I want to take a trip into this girl's past memories and see what happened with her previous master." Yami answered gesturing to Isabel.

"Yes my pharaoh. Who all wants to see?" she asked.

Seto, Yami, and Shadi surrounded Isis and her millennium necklace started to glow. What the group saw appalled them. Isabel's previous master had a whip and a knife and he was walking towards her as she backed away from him.

"Come here you stupid slave!!" He yelled at her; snapping the whip in front of her. "You are a special girl, and I intend on ruining any hope you have of living a long and happy life." He continued laughing cruelly as he brought the whip down on her back again and again getting her ribs, legs, and arms as she tried to defend herself.

After his beating with the whip was over, he took the knife and slit both her wrists as she lie on the ground in pain hardly able to move. They saw her master turn away and to their surprise, the skin on either side of the cuts on her wrists started glowing white and her wrists healed themselves. Her master turned back around with the metal collar in hand and snapped it around her neck taking the deck of cards that now lay beside her weakened body.

"This collar will prevent you from calling out for help from any of your pathetic cards. Not that you'll be able to call for them anyway, I will keep them in my possession, as far away from you as possible until the day you are either bought by someone else, or killed by one of my severe beatings." He explained, laughing cruelly. "Finally, I have someone to cure my boredom." He said as he walked away from her battered body.

It was then that Seto saw a faint symbol glowing white on her forehead.

            "Look!" He said, as he pointed to the symbol on her head.

            "That's the Egyptian symbol for hope." Shadi said, wide eyed.

            "That explains why she has innocence, fear and sadness in her soul room." Yami stated.

"I noticed the scars on her wrists from being cut several times; but I couldn't understand how she could still be alive. You all saw the white light on her wrists when they were cut, didn't you?" Seto asked, receiving nods from everyone.

The group watched all the horrible beatings she went through until the day that she was thrown out and Seto brought her back to the palace. They all exited her memories and went about their usual routines. Seto gently grabbed Isabel's wrist leading her to his chambers where he placed the two wristbands on her wrists and picked up the collar from the pillow. Seeing the wary look in her eyes, Seto explained that she could still call on her monsters, even with the collar around her neck. He snapped it on and looked her over.

"You now can walk around the palace without anyone touching you against your will." Seto explained to her, opening his door.

"But master, I do not know where anything is." Isabel quietly protested.

"Don't worry, if you need to ask someone where a certain place is, they will tell you, no questions asked." Seto said gently.

Isabel walked out of Seto's chambers and down the hall. She found herself walking to the throne room where she quietly opened the door peeking in to make sure she wasn't disturbing anything important that might be going on in there. She saw to her shock, that the room was completely dark and there were monsters fighting each other. One that was following Yami's orders noticed the door cracked open and immediately went to seize the intruder. Isabel bit back a yelp of pain as he grabbed her harshly by the arm.

"What did you find, Chaos Mage?" Yami asked.

"Unhand my master!" a voice came from behind Isabel.

"Pajaro (2), return to your card, I didn't call for your help!" Isabel scolded quietly

"But master, you're in trouble." Pajaro protested.

"Only because my curiosity got the better of me; now go, I must take whatever punishment comes with disturbing a duel." Isabel explained.

Pajaro returned to his card reluctantly and Isabel was placed before the pharaoh as the throne room returned to normal and the monster holding her remained.

            "Why have you come to the throne room?" Yami asked taking his seat on his throne.

            "My master said that I could walk around the palace." She said, keeping her eyes to the floor.

"Chaos mage, you may release her, she is the high priest's slave." Yami instructed his monster. "Now, return to the shadow realm." He ordered his monster. "What did you mean by 'I must take whatever punishment comes with disturbing a duel'?" Yami asked her.

"Well, I've been whipped so many times by my previous master I got used to it being a daily routine." She answered.

At that moment, her previous master entered the throne room with a whip and declared that he get his slave back.

            "Oh Ra no." Isabel whispered, backing up.

He went to strike her with the whip when he froze in place.

            "How did you get passed my guards?!" Yami asked angrily.

At that moment, Seto entered the throne room and in seeing the man he walked over to stand beside his slave.

"Why have you returned? I paid you for her and yet you return to reclaim her!" Seto demanded an explanation.

"Your guards were easy to get passed after I whipped them long and hard. Now, return the angel of hope to me now!" Her previous master ordered.

Yami and Seto looked at each other, then at Isabel's terror filled eyes and then with one simple hand thrust forward Yami shouted, 

            "Mind Crush!!"

Isabel's previous master fell to the floor motionless. Both men turned to Isabel to find that she had collapsed to her knees shaking violently, and crying out of fear and dread of what could've happened if she weren't in the palace, and if a different man, a simple peasant, had rescued her instead. She knew one thing for sure, if it was an average peasant, he'd be dead and she'd be back with her previous master. Isabel was so caught up in her own thoughts that when she felt two arms wrap around her she cried out in fear, and tried to back away, until she heard her master saying soothing words to her and pulling her close to him.

"Shh, it's alright, it's just me, he will never return to hurt you again." He whispered to her.

Soon, Seto felt her stop shaking and her sobs had stopped. He looked down at Isabel to find that she had fallen asleep. Seto picked her up into his arms and looked at Yami saying,

            "I'll be taking her back to my chambers now; she needs to rest since she's had a long and busy day." 

Yami watched as Seto carried Isabel back down the hall and into his chambers. 

            "Seto my old friend, I do believe you're falling in love with her." He said, smiling to himself.

            'If only I could find someone like that to care about' Yami thought to himself.

As if on cue, the guards came into the throne room pretty well dragging a girl with them. The girl was very beat up, much like Isabel was.

            "What is the meaning of this?!" Yami said with a harsh tone while taking in the girl's features. 

She had black hair with red streaks through it, but unfortunately, Yami couldn't see her eyes because they were closed since she was in pain.

"Well, you see sire, we found her lying on a back road outside a house unconscious. As you can see though, she is awake now and well…" A guard was explaining what had happened when the girl's eyes opened enough to see Isabel's previous master's body on the floor; seeing his body she nearly went hysterical and tried to get away. 

It seemed that although she was in pain, she wanted to get as far away from the man's body as possible. Yami was intrigued by this and stood up from his throne to walk over to the girl his guards held.

(1.) The first six words in the second sentence of Volcan's answer explains what his master asked him in Spanish.

(2.) Spanish word for bird.


	2. Sisters!

Chapter 2: Sisters?

He walked up to the girl and commanded her to stop struggling because the man before her was dead.

            "Bout time someone killed that bastard." She said quietly but the anger was evident in her voice.

            "Did this man beat you?" Yami asked.

"Yes, me and my sister. However, I was lucky enough to be sold to another master who I thought would treat me better. It turns out he was just as bad as my other master and he beat me constantly for things that were petty; or in other words, to keep him from getting bored." The girl explained, the entire time keeping her eyes to the floor.

Yami put his hand under her chin, raising her head so that she was looking into his eyes of crimson. Yami noticed that her eyes were a rare shade of light sea green. Yami was interrupted by the doors to the throne room opening and he let go of the girl's chin to see Seto walk in with Isabel at his side. 

            "Seto, I thought she was resting." Yami stated.

"Well, she woke up an hour ago and insisted that she get out of my chamber; so instead of letting her go out alone, I decided to come with her and keep an eye on her." Seto explained.

Isabel sensed something familiar and looked up to see the guards holding her sister who had her head down and was looking at the floor.

            "Oh my Ra!" She whispered. "Sarah!" She cried out, stunned.

The girl lifted her head and the same shock shone in her eyes when she saw her sister standing by the high priest.

            "Isabel! What are you doing here?!" Sarah asked stunned before wincing in pain.

The high priest and the pharaoh were confused at the sight.

"I was thrown on a back road behind my master's house when the high priest found me and brought me here; he had me cleaned up before we went into town and he bought me from my previous master, in a way, he set me free from his beatings and showed me not all slaves are whipped by their masters." Isabel explained, before looking at her master and asking, 

"Master, may I go to my sister?"

Seto was shocked, but nodded his head, allowing her to go to her sister. Yami and Seto were both surprised when the sisters joined hands and a bright light surrounded them before fading and showing Sarah to be completely healed; and any wounds that were bandaged on Isabel were healed as well. The two of them hugged and pulled apart with tears in their eyes.

"I thought for sure that your master had killed you." Sarah said.

"No, he didn't, thank Ra that I was rescued from that life by the high priest." Isabel explained.

"I missed you so much." They said at the same time, hugging again.

"Yami, I don't think that we'd be able to separate those two if our lives depended on it." Seto whispered. 

"Good, I had no intention of doing so, I believe that Sarah should be my slave; what do you think?" Yami explained before asking Seto's opinion.

"I agree, I can tell you're already attracted to her." Seto teased, looking at Yami.

Yami nudged him in the side before walking over to the two sisters and sending his guards away.

            "Isabel, please return to Seto's side, I have to speak with Sarah." Yami said.

Isabel obeyed reluctantly and Yami brought Sarah to his throne to discuss his plans when Sarah's master entered the throne room looking very pissed. He turned a dial on a remote causing the collar around Sara's neck to start to constrict.

            "No!!" Isabel screamed, reaching out to her sister.

"You idiot! You weren't supposed to let the twins reunite! The angels of hope and light are to be forever separated or they will be powerful enough to stop me from hurting them. I told my brother that I would keep this wench as far away from her sister as possible, and that is what I intend to do!" The man shouted at the pharaoh before tuning the dial over to a higher number, causing Sarah to fall to her knees as her air supply started to diminish.

Yami had had enough, and he used his puzzle to blast the collar and break it in half, causing it to fall to the ground.

"You shall never storm into my throne room again and call me by such a name, Mind Crush!!" Yami shouted in anger.

The man's body fell to the ground as his soul was shattered, and Yami ordered his guards to dispose of the bodies at once. Yami kneeled down next to Sarah who was taking in as much air as she could, and told her that she would be his slave, and that she would remain in the palace, where she would be close to her sister. Yami ordered Anzu to take and clean Sarah up and to send her to his chambers when she was clean. Before Sarah left the throne room, she looked back at Isabel with a worried expression, but she only received a nod and a smile from her, saying that it would be okay. Yami left to his chambers to get some wristbands and a new collar ready for her. 

A while later, there was a timid knock on Yami's door and he opened it to see Sarah in a dress much like Isabel's with gold armbands on each of her upper arms and gold thread wound around a few strands of black hair like it was done on Isabel. Yami led her into his chamber where he put a gold wristband on each of her wrists that were outlined with silver and ruby, with rubies and diamonds scattered around them and then he put on the collar that had an engraving of the millennium puzzle in the front outlined in silver and ruby and it, like the wristbands, also had rubies and diamonds scattered about it. Sarah looked at herself unsure if she really wanted this life; but then she thought that even if she didn't want the life she was in now, she really wouldn't have a say in the matter. She looked up at Yami who smiled his approval.

"No one will touch you without my consent. If you don't want someone to hurt you, they won't be able to lay a finger on you; or a whip for that matter." Yami explained to her.

"Now, you can go see your sister, Seto's room is at the end of the hall on the left." Yami said while opening his door for her.

As Sarah walked down the hall, one of the guards reached out and grabbed her roughly by the arm saying,

            "Well you're a pretty thing, how about we go to my quarters."

            "Or, how about you get your hands off me you sicko!" She snapped at him.

            "Now, now, that's no way to talk to a palace guard." He said, his grip tightening.

            "It is when it's my slave that you are talking to." Yami's voice came from behind him.

The guard immediately let go of her while she rubbed her sore arm. Yami walked up to the guard and seethed,

            "If I ever catch you touching my slave again, it'll cost you your soul!"

The guard shook nervously and stayed stiff until Yami gently took Sarah's wrist and walked with her to Seto's chamber.

            "Seto, your slave has a guest." Yami said after knocking on his door.

Seto opened the door and Isabel nearly ran into her sister's arms.

            "Sarah, how have you been the past four years?" Isabel asked.

"I started trying to resist my master when it came to the times he was bored. Unfortunately he ended up going upstairs and dragging me down. There once was a cute blonde boy that came into the shop while he was beating me, and he tried to stop him. All his interference earned him was a bottle to the head and a boot out the door though. I never did catch the name of the boy who tried to help me." Sarah explained.

"That is so weird, I had something similar happen to me; only, it was a boy with brown hair that was done in a strange way, it looked like a triangle on his head. Unfortunately, like you, I never could catch his name." Isabel informed.

"How were the two boys dressed?" Yami asked them.

"They were dressed in peasant's clothes, why?" Sarah answered.

"If the two boys are the ones I'm thinking about, then they're taking after your bad habits pharaoh." Seto stated.

"I wondered why Joe's head was bleeding when he arrived for his duties that morning." Yami stated after giving Seto a fake glare.

"I'm going to go get them, just to see if our suspicions are correct." Yami said before he went out the door.

Yami returned a few minutes later with two guards. The guards' eyes nearly bugged out at the sight of the two girls. They each recognized one of the girls they tried to help one week ago.

            "Joey, Tristan, remove your helmets." Yami ordered.

Sara and Isabel gasped when they saw the two boys who removed their helmets. They each recognized one of the boys as one that tried to help them.

            "Sarah, this is Joey." Yami said pointing to Joey.

            "And that, Isabel, is Tristan." Seto said, pointing to the other boy.

            "Nice to meet you." The girls said at the same time.

            "Same here." Tristan said.

            "Uh, yeah." Joey said, still stunned.

"Sara's my slave, and Isabel, is Seto's slave." Yami informed them. "And you Joey will be guarding Sarah when she walks around the palace; while you, Tristan guard Isabel, when she walks around the palace." Yami ordered.

"Okay!!" They both said, getting ready to run to the girls.

"But, not tonight, the girls need their sleep." Yami said while taking Sara's hand and leading her back to his chambers.

Joey and Tristan fell, anime style before getting up and going back to their duties with their heads down. Seto closed his door after they left and told Isabel that she should get some sleep while pointing to the makeshift bed on the floor. Isabel happily obeyed since it was a long day for her and she was extremely exhausted. She fell asleep almost as soon as she hit the bed and covered herself up. The same thing went on in Yami's room, but Sarah was not so easy to get to sleep; she kept waking up during the night screaming. Yami ended up carrying her to his bed and sleeping with her wrapped up in his arms to give her a feeling of security, which worked, and Yami finally got some sleep as well as Sarah. 

The next day, Isabel, Tristan, Joey, and Sarah walked around the palace together laughing and joking around with each other. Joey came up with the idea of leaving the palace and going around the market place but that idea was shot down by the two sisters because what happened to them in their lives before their new masters was still fresh in their minds and they were in no hurry to go back to that life.

"We'll protect you, that's why we were ordered to walk around the palace with you." Tristan said gently.

"Listen, our old masters had friends that treated their slaves just as bad and they agreed to take us on if our masters were to end up dead or worse." Isabel explained.

"There's this friend of mine that is beaten constantly by his master, him and his brother. I hardly ever saw his brother but I saw Bakura very often." Sarah explained.

"Which is the exact reason that we should go into town." Joey said.

"Making plans without our consent?" Yami said walking up to them with Seto next to him.

"Master?!!" Both girls said at the same time.

"We didn't agree to go with them, we promise." Isabel said in a panic, afraid that Seto would beat her.

"Don't worry, we're not mad, we know that you disagreed with these two troublemakers." Yami said calmly.

"We also heard about your two friends Sarah." Seto stated. "We'd be glad to go into town with you two and try to get them out of that life, like we did for you." He finished.

"That would be great!" Sarah said before looking at her sister who had a sad look on her face.

"Isabel, what's wrong?" Sarah asked.

"I too have friends that are stuck in a life like mine was." She said sadly.

"What were your friend's names?" Seto asked.

"They were beat up just as badly as I was, sometimes worse. There were times that I would give my share of what little food I had with them since their master doesn't give them really very much food. Anyway, in answer to your question master, their names are Yugi and Malik. I warn you pharaoh, Yugi does look very much like you, unfortunately, during one of his master's beatings he was whipped at just the right angle to where the vision portion of his mind was damaged; he's not completely blind, he can see blurry images but that's about it." Isabel explained.

"How old are Yugi and Malik?" The pharaoh asked.

"Yugi is very short, even for his age, which is fifteen; Malik's the same age."

"We'll head out immediately." Yami stated.

They walked out of the palace and into the town to first find Bakura and his brother. As they were walking they came across a house that suddenly made Sarah cringe and move a bit closer to her master before stopping dead in her tracks.

            "Sarah, what is it?" Yami asked.

            "Bakura." She whispered.

Bakura looked up from his spot hiding just behind the corner in the alley and saw Sarah with the high priest, Yami, and four guards.

            "Sarah, what happened to you? I haven't seen you for two weeks." Bakura asked.

            "Sorry Bakura, the pharaoh is my new master. Why aren't you protecting your brother?"

"The master threw me out and locked the door so that I wouldn't be able to protect him from being beaten. I'm currently looking for a way back in so that I can help him." Bakura said angrily.

At that point he heard a blood curdling scream coming from inside the house; Bakura flew into a panic and tried harder to find a way in. With a sign from Yami, Joey and Tristan knocked the door down just in time to witness a whip coming down on Bakura's brother.

"No! Get away from him you bastard!" Sarah screamed, leaving her master's side to fight off their master, so that Bakura could get his brother out of the house and somewhere safe.

The man spun around with his whip and brought it down on her, striking her in the ribs before getting her on her right shoulder. Yami's eyes flashed a dark shade of red before he ordered two of his guards to take the man to the palace dungeons and to give him twenty lashes. 

            "But your highness, I was just whipping my disobedient slave." The man protested.

"You also whipped MY slave in which you will be put in the dungeon and tortured for the rest of eternity!" Yami shouted, his eyes still flashing with anger.

Yami then turned to Sarah and gently touched the wound on her side causing her to wince.

            "Don't worry master, once my sister and I join hands, I will be healed." She said reassuringly.

            "Sarah, I won't heal just you, I want to heal Bakura's brother too." Isabel stated calmly.

"Bakura, help your brother over here so we can heal him." Sarah said causing Bakura to look at her questioningly. "Bakura, trust me, you know you can." Sarah said getting Bakura to do as she requested.

Bakura brought his brother over to where Sarah and Isabel were and was surprised to see a bright white light surround all three of them and his brother came out completely healed.

            "Ryou, are you okay?" Bakura asked.

            "Yes, it's as if father never hit me in the first place." Ryou answered softly.

Ryou then noticed the pharaoh and immediately got to his knees and bowed. Sarah walked over to him and said,

"It's okay; we came here to get you out of this life. Come on, stand up, we have two more slaves to help."

"Okay, thank you." Ryou said softly, keeping his eyes to the ground.

The group continued on their way until they reached a broken down house and saw a tri color haired boy outside doing what looked like gardening.

            "Yugi?" Isabel asked as she stepped toward him.

He turned around seeing a blurry image of Isabel and asked,

            "Isabel? Isabel, what are you doing here?! Where have you been?! What have you been up to?!"

"Yugi, calm down, I'm here to save you from this life, I've been living in the palace with my new master, and I've been living a life free of beatings. Where's Malik?" She asked.

"The brat's inside; and just how do you plan to rescue them from me?" Their master asked, coming out of the house.

Yugi backed away only to have his master drag him back by the chain around his right wrist. Yugi whimpered, knowing what was to come and started to cower. 

"I'll teach you to talk with friends instead of working like you're supposed to do you worthless slave!!" His master yelled at him bringing out a whip.

"If you touch him with that whip I swear I'll hit you so hard you'll wish that you were never born!!" Isabel shouted.

Her anger level was so high she started glowing white and the whip that Yugi's master once held flew out of his hand and embedded itself into the nearest wall. Yugi's master was the next to go flying and he hit the wall with such force, he left an impression. 

"Come on Yugi, we've gotta get you outta here." Isabel said after she stopped glowing.

"Wait, we've got to get Malik!" Yugi shouted.

"Where is he?" Isabel asked.

Malik limped out of the house and showed himself to everyone; unfortunately, he was really beat up.

            "Malik! What has my father done to you?!" Yugi asked panicked.

            "What he always does, beat the snot out of me." Malik answered weakly.

            "Sarah, I need your help, we've got to heal them both." Isabel said.

  
The twins joined hands with Yugi and Malik standing in between them as they worked their magick once again and healed them. Yami, although he was told of the resemblance between him and Yugi, was still shocked at the boy that was walking with Isabel.

            "Hello Yugi." Yami said, looking down at the boy with kind eyes.

Yugi looked up only to see the pharaoh and quickly drop to his knees with Malik doing the same thing.

            "Yugi, Malik, you may stand; like Isabel said, were here to help you." Yami said.

            "H-how are you going to help us?" Yugi asked.

            "Simple, we're going to bring you back to the palace with us." Yami answered.

"Yami, we should head back to the palace now then, because we do have the four slaves that we came for in the first place." Seto advised.

"You're right Seto, we'll head back." Yami agreed.

They all returned to the palace where the four new slaves were sent to the bathing chamber. When they finished in the bathing chamber and were dressed in new clothes with golden armbands on each arm, they were sent to the throne room to figure out who their new masters would be. The slaves found out that Ryou and Yugi would be Yami's slaves while Bakura and Malik would be Seto's slaves. After being assigned to their masters, they followed them down the hall to their rooms where they received collars and wristbands like the girls had along with headbands. Yami's slaves had headbands that had a ruby gem with a small diamond in the center. Seto's slaves had headbands with a sapphire gem and a small emerald in the center. 


	3. New Life, New Masters

Chapter 3: New Life, New Masters

After the wristbands and headbands were given to Seto's slaves, he stepped toward them and Bakura and Malik backed away until they were against the wall. 

"Master, let me talk to them; remember, we just got them out of their abusive master's reach." Isabel suggested.

"Alright." Seto said, disappointed that his new slaves feared him, even after freeing them from their old life. 

"Bakura, Malik, the master won't hurt you; he hasn't hurt me; and don't worry about Yugi and Ryou, if the pharaoh was hurting them I would know, since my sister is also one of his slaves." Isabel explained.

"Is what she says true?!" Bakura asked suspiciously, suddenly, Ryou's well being gave him the courage to step forward and look his master in the eyes.

"Do you see Isabel cowering before me?" Seto asked sarcastically.

"Well, no, but I want to see my brother soon so that I have proof of him being okay." Bakura answered.

"Master, can I go and see Yugi? We're not brothers or anything, but we are good friends, and I've taken it upon myself to protect him from any beatings from his father. Usually, I'd get in the way when his father tried bringing a whip down on him and I took the beating for him." Malik explained.

"You will see Yugi later; Yami will bring them down to my chambers when he has them ready." Seto said. "Now sit down on the makeshift beds on the floor and relax, I promise I won't hurt you." He finished.

The slaves did as they were told and stayed quiet, awaiting Yami's arrival. In Yami's room, he got the same kind of reactions from Ryou and Yugi as Seto got from Bakura and Malik. Yami couldn't understand why his slaves were afraid of him since he did save them from their previous lives. He realized that if he took a step towards them they'd take a step away from him. 

"Master, they may have been rescued from the abuse, but they still are wary of you as their new master. It will take a while before they are able to trust you completely." Sarah explained.

"Ryou, come here please." Sarah requested.

Ryou walked over to her and she gave him a comforting hug to help relax him.

"Ryou, I may know your brother better than you, but it's not like I got to see you very often. Listen, I'll make sure you stay safe but I guarantee you won't have to worry about the master hurting you." Sarah told him.

"Master, I want to see Malik again; can I go to see him?" Yugi asked shyly.

"Oh that's right, Seto and I agreed that we would meet in his chamber as soon as you're ready; let's go." Yami said with a kind smile before walking to the door and allowing his slaves to walk out before he shut his door and followed them down the hall.

"Seto, we're here" Yami said after knocking on his door.

"Come on in everyone; Bakura's very eager to see you Ryou." Seto said after opening the door and allowing them in.

Ryou immediately ran into Bakura's arms and his brother hugged him tight. Malik walked over to Yugi's bed with him to talk with him about how Yami was treating him. Isabel and Sarah hugged each other and then started chatting and teasing each other. A half hour later, the slaves were allowed out of Seto's chamber to walk around the palace and investigate. When they entered the throne room, they each took a different hallway expecting to meet up in the same room at the end of the hall. It didn't work out that way; the slaves ended up getting separated and were soon looking for each other, but they ended up getting more lost. A while later, Isabel, Malik, Bakura, Sarah, and Ryou returned to their master's chambers.

"Where's Yugi?" Yami asked after Sarah and Ryou entered his room.

"He's not here master?" Sarah asked.

"No, he's not; where did you all go?" Yami asked.

"We went to the throne room and we all took different corridors thinking that we'd all meet in the same room at the end of each hall; unfortunately, we ended up getting lost." Sarah explained.

"I'll check with Seto to see if all his slaves have returned." Yami stated, getting up and walking out of his chamber.

Yami returned to his chamber a few moments later and nodded that all of Seto's slaves had returned. He suddenly looked to Sarah who was rubbing her temples before she suddenly looked up and ran out of the pharaoh's chamber. As Sarah ran down the corridors, she came across Yugi who was confronted by his father and he had a whip. 

"Hey! I thought I told you to leave him alone you bastard!!" Sarah yelled down the corridor before running to Yugi's aide.

"You don't have your sister close enough to feed your power now." The man said before bringing the whip down on her.

"Father no!!" Yugi shouted grabbing the blur that was is father's arm.

"Unhand me you lousy slave!" His father yelled before throwing him down the corridor.

"Leave him alone! Don't touch him!" Sarah shouted running at the man that was now approaching Yugi.

Sarah tackled him to the ground not caring that he was stronger than her at the time. Unfortunately, he easily flipped her over so he had her pinned. He took a knife from his belt and brought it close to her throat when suddenly two guards grabbed him off of her and Yami went to her side.

            "Sarah, are you okay?" Yami asked.

            "I'm fine, but… Yugi!" Sarah said while getting up and crawling over to him.

            "Yugi, Yugi, are you okay?! Please, say yes." Sarah begged while gently shaking him.

"Sarah, we should get him back to my chambers." 

"Yes master." Sarah answered, getting up and walking back to Yami's chamber with him.

 "Guards, take this low life to the dungeons for even daring to attack my slaves." Yami ordered.

A guard carried Yugi to Yami's chamber where the palace healer tended his wounds.

            "Whe-Where's my father?" Yugi asked when he came to.

            "Rotting in the dungeon, where he belongs." Yami answered angrily.

"Yugi, I'm so glad you're okay." Sarah said. "I just hope we never get split up in the palace again." She finished.

As the slaves were talking in Yami's chamber, Malik wandered around the palace and walked around a corner only to run into someone and fall back to the ground. He got up and said,

"I'm so sorry; I wasn't watching where I was going." Then he looked up into the face of the person he ran into and gasped.

The man had a similar reaction before he said,

            "It's quite alright; I'm Ishtar, one of the pharaoh's councilmen." Ishtar stated.

            "I'm Malik; it's nice to meet you." He said.

            "Same here; I see you're the high priest's slave."

            "Yeah, well, it's a lot better than my old life."

            "What was so bad about your old life?"

"My friend's father was our master and well, he had a tendency to beat the tar outta me when I tried to protect my friend from his beatings."

"You're master beat you? What for?"

"Because he was bored and he found that beating us relieved that boredom." 

"Malik! What are you doing out of my chambers?!!" Seto asked angrily.

"Master?! Uh, I, Well…"

"High priest, we were just talking with each other, don't worry, he was safe." Ishtar said, since Malik was a bit tongue tied.

"Well, Ishtar, I'm glad he was safe, but I can't trust that his master won't escape from the dungeons to beat him again. I would prefer that he walks around with one of the guards, or me, or someone who can protect him." Seto explained.

"I wouldn't mind walking around the palace with him; we were just getting to know each other after all. If his master does escape, I'll be able to look out for him just fine, if you would let me." Ishtar offered.

"Very well Ishtar, but, make sure he behaves himself as well; the last thing I need is people complaining because of his mischief." Seto said before walking back to his chambers.

"I'm not that mischievous." Malik mumbled.

Ishtar laughed, then led him around the palace showing him all the important rooms, as well as the not so important rooms. When they were finished, Ishtar took Malik back to Seto's chamber. Before Malik could walk in, he was immediately pinned to the wall by his master who had escaped from the dungeon.

            "Don't worry about Yugi; I'll get to him as soon as I'm done with you." He hissed.

            "You stay away from Yugi you bastard of a father!!" Malik yelled in hopes of someone hearing him.

His master put a hand over his mouth to silence him and then with his other hand he punched him in the gut. Seto was awakened from his light sleep by his millennium rod glowing brightly. He quickly looked around his room to find that only Isabel and Bakura were there. He walked into the hall to find Malik's old master beating him and Malik was on the floor writhing in pain. Seto walked up behind the man and pinned him to the wall forcefully.

"Malik is my slave now as Yugi is the pharaoh's; you should know that the punishment for beating either mine or Yami's slaves is torture in the dungeon for all eternity." Seto seethed.

Yami was awakened by Seto's yelling at the man as was Yugi. Yami and Yugi were walking down towards Seto's chambers when they saw what was happening; and Yugi walked closer to his master when he saw a blurry image of who Seto was yelling at. 

"So, you've decided to try attacking Malik this time; well then, I'll have to throw you in the dungeon, where you will suffer for all eternity. Guards, take him away." Yami commanded. 

Yugi watched as he saw blurry images of the guards take his father away before running to Malik's side.

            "Malik, can you walk?" Seto asked.

"I'm sorry master, I was going to enter your chambers when he blind-sided me and pinned me to the wall." Malik explained weakly. "I'm afraid that I'm in too much pain to walk on my own." He stated.

Seto picked up his slave and carried him into his chambers laying him on the makeshift bed that was laid out for him before looking at Isabel.

            "What is it master?" she asked.

            "Can you heal him with your power alone?" Seto asked.

            "Yes, I can, but I will probably pass out as soon as it's done." Isabel answered.

            "Then please do, his master came back and beat on him." Seto stated.

"He What?!! You better damn well make sure that I don't run into him, because if I do, I'll kill him!!" Isabel said angrily, before calming down and healing Malik.

Isabel passed out as soon as Malik was healed and Seto carried her to her own bed.

            'Note to self; never piss her off.' Seto thought to himself.

Yami had gone back to his chambers after literally pulling Yugi off of his leg since he was so scared that he refused to let go and Yami was losing circulation to that leg.

            "Yugi, he won't hurt you again." Yami said gently as Yugi clung to him for dear life.

            "That's what you said last time." Yugi said quietly.

            "I didn't expect him to be able to escape the dungeon." Yami said, still gently. 

"I'm scared, he's been beating me since I was nine; and then he bought Malik when I was twelve. Malik thought for sure that my father would kill me if he didn't protect me, so many times he took the severe beating while blocking my father's shots from hitting me." Yugi explained.

"You've been abused for seven years?!" Yami asked surprised.

"Yes, he also refused to leave me alone for a single day without giving me a beating." Yugi stated.

"Since I can't be with you all the time, I'm going to give you one of my monsters to protect you." Yami stated.

"Monsters? What do you mean?" Yugi asked.

"Like this. Dark Magician, come forth!" Yami called, and a purple clad humanoid stood before Yugi.

"Yes master, what can I do for you?" he asked, before focusing his gaze on Yugi who started to back away and fell to the floor.

"I've seen my sister bring out something similar, from a deck that she owns." Sarah stated, causing the magician to look at her.

"Ryou, are you going to be okay, you look like you've seen a ghost." Sarah said, looking at Ryou who was backed against the wall with a terrified expression on his face.

The magician looked to Ryou and gave a warm smile, but that caused Ryou to faint from the additional shock of the monster smiling at him. Sarah walked over to Ryou and carried him to his bed where she lay him down gently. 

"Sarah, do you have a deck?" Yami asked.

"No, but Isabel gave me one of her cards. She gave me Silver Fang since I liked him so much." She answered.

"Have you ever called him out?" Yami asked.

"No, but, I once saw the card glowing after one of my master's severe beatings." 

"What were you thinking at the time?"

"I was thinking of killing the bastard, and for someone or something to help me."

"I see, it sounds like Silver Fang wanted to help you but you were already too weak to summon him."

"What?! I thought my sister was the only one that could call on monsters."

"Evidently, you can too if you concentrate hard enough."

A small giggle brought their attention to Yugi, who had gotten over his shock and edged closer to the magician who looked like a blurry image of purple. 

            "I see that you've gotten used to the Dark Magician Yugi." Yami said smiling.

At that point, Yami saw Yugi dive between the magician's legs where he was caught and lifted into the magician's arms and he laughed joyously. 

            "So Yugi, would you like a monster like the Dark Magician to watch over you?" Yami asked.

Yugi looked at the blurry image that was Yami with wide eyes and a big grin before nodding his head.

            "Very well, I'll let you choose the monster." Yami said, holding out some cards to Yugi.

Yugi chose the card that was just a green blur when he looked at it. Yami looked at the card and said,

"The Feral Imp; good choice." Before giving Yugi the card and telling him that if he needed his help all he had to do was call out to him mentally.

The Dark Magician put Yugi down and returned to his card after bowing to Yami. Ryou came to a few minutes later and asked what had happened.

            "You fainted after the Dark Magician smiled at you." Yami answered with a chuckle.

            "Oh yeah." Ryou said softly, a faint blush appearing from embarrassment. 

"Don't worry Ryou; you've never seen a monster appear before you so it's only natural that you would be scared." Sarah explained.

"That's not necessarily true, my master was able to call forth monsters to do his bidding and he threatened Bakura and me with them more than once." Ryou explained.

"What?! That's not the purpose of having monsters at your command!" Yami said surprised.

"He once called out a monster and told it to hurt my brother, but the monster refused knowing that it was wrong. When my father threatened to rip its card if it didn't obey, it had no choice but to follow orders." Ryou explained. "After the order was carried out, the monster looked at me with a sad expression; it was as if the monster was trying to apologize with its eyes." Ryou continued.

"Does your father still have his deck with him and if so, does he still have the monster in it?" Yami asked.

"He does still have his deck, but he doesn't have the monster inside it anymore. He put the monster's card in a book and left it there after it tried to disobey him." Ryou answered.

"Would you like to go get the card?" Yami asked.

"Yes, I would." Ryou answered.

"Then let's get our robes on and head out." Yami ordered.

"Are you going to tell the high priest so that he can come with his slaves too?" Ryou asked hopefully.

"Sure, let's go." Yami answered, before putting his robe on and heading down to Seto's chamber with his slaves.


	4. Return Home to Retrieve a Special Card

Chapter 4 Return Home to Retrieve a Special Card 

With Seto's agreement, they were soon in the town and at Ryou's house to retrieve the card that his father had abandoned. It took Ryou some time before he found the book that had the card within its pages. Unfortunately, when Ryou opened the book he found the card inside to be blank. Ryou turned around with tears in his eyes and showed the blank card to Yami. Suddenly, he heard,

"Little master?"

Ryou whipped around to see a scaled warrior with a trident-like weapon walk out of the shadows and appear behind him.

            "Deepsea Warrior, you're still here!" Ryou said excitedly.

"Of course little master, where else would I go. I never expected to see you again after I carried out the master's orders to hurt your brother."

"I forgave you long ago. I would've done the same if I were in your position." Ryou said before running over and hugging the monster. "How would you like to leave here and live in the palace and guard me? My father's in the dungeon and if he should escape I'd like to have you by my side to protect me from him." Ryou explained.

"It all depends on if it's okay with the pharaoh." Deepsea Warrior said as he raised his head to look at Yami.

Yami nodded his head and they left for the palace after Deepsea Warrior returned to his card. They got to the palace to find the servants running around frantically. Yami grabbed one of them by the arm and asked,

            "What's going on?"

            "Milord, there's a powerful king from another land coming to see you."

            "I did not authorize this!!"

"Yes milord, but he really didn't give us much choice; you see, he has a very powerful army and the head councilman didn't want any harm to come to the city."

"Ishtar authorized this?!"

"Well, milord, he knows the king personally; evidently he has met him before."

Another servant ran by the pharaoh and said,

            "Milord, the king from a distant land has arrived."

"Well, it's too late to send him away; show him in. Sarah, I'd like you to return to my chambers with Ryou and Yugi." Yami requested.

"Same with you Isabel; return to my chambers with Bakura and Malik." Seto asked of his slaves.

"Yes master." They all said before walking down to the chambers of each of their respective masters.

The king was shown into the throne room and shook hands with the pharaoh.

            "Good afternoon pharaoh; I'm Pegasus."

            "Well Pegasus, what is this important business you'd like to discuss?"

            "I was hoping to purchase some slaves from your city here."

            "And why are you looking for a slave from my city?"

            "I'm simply looking for some slaves to be my personal servants."

Yami thought about this for a short time before replying,

            "Very well, you may choose a slave from the north part of the city only."

            "Thank you your highness." Pegasus said as he took his leave.

Back at Seto's chambers, Isabel was getting bored and decided to walk around the palace after seeing that the others were asleep. She stepped out of the chamber and with her eyes to the floor, headed toward the throne room not realizing that she passed Pegasus in the hall and he was looking her over. Pegasus turned around and followed Isabel to the throne room. As Isabel reached the throne room, Pegasus snuck up behind her and covered her mouth before grabbing her and heading to his chamber where he tied her hands behind her back and put her in a corner of his chamber. 

"I think I'll take you off the high priests hands." Pegasus said to her.

"Mas-" Isabel tried to call her master but her mouth was immediately covered by Pegasus' hand.

Isabel glared at Pegasus before she suddenly had memories of what her first master did flood back to her and she had a look of terror cross her face before she started trembling almost violently. In seeing Isabel's terrified face, Pegasus was confused; he knew that he hadn't done anything but explain his plan to her and she went into a fit of trembling. Volcan sensed his master's fear and came out of his card to help her against whomever, or whatever, was terrifying her so. Pegasus backed up when he saw a duel monster come to life right before his eyes.

"What have you done to my master?!" Volcan asked angrily.

"I've done nothing to her. I only brought her here to become her master and to have her serve me." Pegasus explained. "I don't understand why she's so terrified." He finished.

"You idiot!! Did it ever occur to you that she wasn't treated well by her first master before she came to the palace?! Her master beat her repeatedly and took her deck away so we couldn't protect her! He finally made the one mistake of throwing her out of his house after a beating where the high priest found her and brought her back to the palace to clean her up! Then the priest left the palace with her and bought her from her master, who gave the high priest her deck, and he returned it to her and we were finally reunited!" Volcan explained angrily.

"Volcan, please, calm down before you set the palace on fire." Isabel ordered though her voice was shaky.

"Sorry master. Let's get out of here, shall we." Volcan asked as he picked her up and burned off the ropes that bound her wrists.

Volcan carried her back to Seto's chamber where he saw Seto looking around frantically and asking his other slaves where she went.

"Isabel's right here high priest, no need to worry." Volcan said as he entered the chamber with his master in his arms.

"Thank Ra, where was she?! Was she hurt?!" Seto asked as Volcan handed Isabel over to him.

"Pegasus took her to his chambers after she decided that she was bored and wandered the halls by herself. His plan was to become her master after he separated her from you." Volcan explained.

"Thank you for rescuing her and bringing her back to me. I don't know what I'd do if I lost her." Seto said as he held a sleeping Isabel.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were falling in love with my master, who just happens to be one of your slaves." Volcan said teasingly before returning to the Shadow Realm grinning.

Seto blushed furiously as he brought Isabel over to her makeshift bed and lay her down.

'You know, I hate to admit it but I think Volcan's right; I'm falling in love with my slave' Seto thought to himself. "Oh, Ra why me!" He shouted.

"Um, Master, are you okay?" Malik asked shyly.

Seto sputtered for a bit before saying, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Isabel awoke the next day to find her master staring at her intently. When she saw how close he was leaning towards her, she screamed.

            "What, do I have something in my teeth?" Seto asked her.

"No, it's just; I'm not used to waking up and seeing someone's face that close to mine." She answered.

            "Oh, okay, let's go to breakfast." Seto said while taking her and his other slaves to the dining hall.

When breakfast was over, Isabel talked to Sarah and explained that she thought her master suddenly went loco.

"Isabel!" Sarah said surprised. "Are you sure it's not love? I mean Yami acts strange around me too. Just the other day, I asked why he was staring at me and he said that he was just looking at a bird that was sitting on the balcony ledge. I turned around and didn't see a bird anywhere near the balcony, let alone, on it." She explained.

"You didn't see how close the master's face was to mine when I woke up this morning. When I screamed he thought it was because he had something in his teeth." Isabel explained.

"Maybe you should ask one of your monsters." Sarah suggested.

"What good would that do?" Isabel asked incredulously.

"Maybe they know, I mean, Seto was telling Yami how Volcan brought you back to his chamber from Pegasus' chamber." Sarah stated.

"Hmmm, maybe I should ask him." Isabel said slyly.

"Isabel, time to return to the chamber" Seto called to her.

'Dammit! I'll have to wait until later to talk to Volcan!' Isabel thought angrily.

When Isabel finally did get to talk to Volcan, he refused to tell her what he knew and he claimed that she'd have a lot more fun if she found out herself. Meanwhile, Seto's behavior continued to become stranger and Isabel knew it was only a matter of time before he'd tell her how he felt. Seto knew he'd have to tell her eventually that he loved her but until the time was right, he'd wait.

            Back with Yami, Sarah was having similar problems; Yami had a habit of staring at her with a glazed look that definitely said 'love' but he wouldn't admit it to her. Sarah had to bring him out of his trance more than a few times in which he would sputter some before making up something completely ridiculous. The two sisters started wondering who would be told first about the feelings of their masters towards them.

            Besides Sarah and Isabel talking to each other, Yami and Seto were talking to each other as well, about when they should tell their slaves how they felt about them. They finally decided to tell the sisters at the same time and hope that their slaves felt the same way towards them. Little did they know that the sisters wouldn't be able to hear it because at the same time Pegasus and Keith were planning a kidnapping. Yep, Pegasus was still after Isabel and Keith had seen Sarah and she had interested him. The kidnapping went as planned and both girls were separated from their original masters to be with new ones. What Pegasus and Keith didn't expect though was the power the sisters had when they were together and that's where they made a mistake in being in the same room with the sisters. Isabel and Sarah joined hands and sent both Keith and Pegasus into the wall so hard that they made a hole with their bodies. Isabel and Sarah then blew the door off and headed back to their masters' rooms.

            "Where have you been?!" Yami and Seto asked when the sisters found them both in Yami's room.

"We were kidnapped by Keith and Pegasus; we kinda had to throw them into the wall and they made holes in it." Sarah explained sheepishly.

            "You broke a wall?" Yami asked slowly.

            "Well, yeah." Sarah answered simply.

            "Isabel, did you have to join with your sister and throw them?" Seto asked.

            "Well, no, but it was self defense." Isabel said quickly. 

            "Riiight, and what did they do to get you to think it necessary to do that?" Seto continued.

"Took us from our original masters who have been hiding their true feelings from us." Isabel answered, seeing Yami and Seto turn crimson.

"Ah, so it's true." Sarah said slyly turning to her master.

"Um, no?" Yami tried.

"Nice try master, not working. Besides why would I turn a looker like you down?" Sarah said teasingly seeing Yami blush once again.

"I feel the same way about you master" Isabel said, turning to Seto and batting her eyelashes.

"We were gonna tell you honest." Seto said defensively.

"It's not every day you get your master to cower before you eh sis." Isabel said to Sarah.

"You got that right." Sarah agreed.

"Wait a minute!" Yami said, quickly regaining his composure.

Isabel and Sarah laughed before running out of the room with Yami and Seto following close behind.

            "Is this what they mean by playing hard to get?" Seto asked Yami as they ran.

            "I don't think so, but when I catch Sarah, she's gonna get it. Yami answered chuckling slightly.

Before the sisters knew it they were grabbed from behind by their masters laughing hysterically from their little escapade. They took their slaves back to their chambers and admitted what they'd been hiding from them. The pharaoh and the high priest finally admitted that they loved their slaves. Yami and Seto then told their other slaves that stayed in their chambers that they loved the sisters in which the others didn't seem to mind.

"It only took you a month to admit it." Sarah said sarcastically to Yami after he told Yugi and Ryou.

"Hush you." Yami said, tickling her.

            Sarah laughed and teased Yami back before they had to go to bed. In Seto's chamber Isabel said pretty much the same as Sarah did to Seto and got pretty much the same reaction from him. They all woke up the next day and Yami and Seto told the council, who didn't agree with the idea of royalty falling in love with slaves.

            "I'm the pharaoh, what I say goes, and I don't care if you don't like the idea!" Yami shouted at them.

            "But, your highness, you can't just marry a slave it's not the way of the royals." Ishtar protested.

"Don't you tell me it's not right; Seto told me of your meeting with Malik and how you reacted around him; don't tell me that the difference in class has stopped you because I know it hasn't!" Yami yelled, seeing a faint blush arise to Ishtar's cheeks.

"I do believe that this meeting is done." Seto said, turning to leave the council room behind a fuming Yami.


	5. Explanations

Chapter 5: Explanations

The high priest and the pharaoh returned to their chambers and calmed down when they saw Sarah and Isabel. Seto walked down to Yami's chamber with Isabel where he and Yami asked the girls why they were called the angels of light and hope. 

"A year before our parents died, Sarah and I found out that we had the ability to heal people and that we could heal bigger wounds when we combined our powers; not only that, but we could throw people into walls for self defense. Shortly after we turned eight, our parents died from a virus that attacked the lungs and spread to other organs from there." Isabel explained.

"That's when the slave traders came; they found us alone in our house and took us away to be sold. It didn't take long for our first master to discover our powers and to find that we were strongest when we were together. He told many of his friends and they decided that the best thing to do would be to separate us so that we wouldn't be able to help each other." Sarah cut in.

"That's when the beatings started. Every time we were beaten, we seemed to heal quicker each time so they started beating us every day, and for very long periods of time. My masters liked to slit my wrists at least once per beating just so they could see the white light emerge and heal the cuts." Isabel chimed in again.

"If you could heal, why didn't you heal your parents?" Yami asked.

"We can only heal external wounds; we can't heal viruses and other illnesses." Isabel explained.

"So, why do they call you the angels of light and hope?" Seto asked.

"I have a very strong will to survive and I never lost hope that one day I'd be saved from my life of torment. How the symbol of hope appeared on my head though, I have no clue." Isabel explained her side.

"I'm called the angel of light because I seem to have an extremely strong light aura around me that grants me the ability to bring light into the darkest of places. I don't know if I have a symbol on my head though; I've never felt any strange warmth emanating from there." Sarah answered. 

            "Well that solves that mystery." Yami stated.

            "I've got a question, how'd you meet Yugi, Malik, Ryou, and Bakura?" Seto asked.

"That's an easy one; I saw Yugi running from someone and stood in front of him when I found that it was his father he was running from. I ended up getting beaten instead of Yugi. After that, Yugi introduced me to Malik and since he ran away from his father that one day, his punishment was to be shackled to the house by one wrist from that day forward." Isabel explained.

"I met Bakura and Ryou in kinda the same way. They were running from their master too but they looked behind them and ran straight into me causing us all to fall down. They apologized and introduced themselves quickly before they took off running again. I didn't get to introduce myself to them until the next time that we met. We'd been friends ever since. Bakura more so because I hardly ever saw Ryou after we met for the first time." Sarah explained. 

"I see; I'm just glad you don't have to live that life any more." Yami said.

"And probably for more than one reason" Sarah put in seeing a blush arise to the pharaoh's cheeks.

"Oh yeah, we all know why the pharaoh likes Sarah, he's in loooove." Seto teased causing Yami to smack him upside the head.

"Oh come on, it's not like you don't love Isabel." Yami shot back.

"Yeah, but at least I can admit it to her." Seto replied.

"Yeah, why haven't you admitted it to me?!" Sarah pouted.

"Gee thanks Seto." Yami mumbled.

"C'mon Isabel, let's get out of here before Yami throws us out." Seto said, running out of the chamber.

"Are we finally gonna take that walk in the garden?" Isabel asked.

"Sure, if you want to." Seto said walking out to the garden with her leaning on his shoulder.

When they walked into the garden, they were ambushed and Seto was knocked out by Yugi's father before he took Isabel roughly by the arm and led her back to his place. He did what he had to Yugi after he ran off; he chained her right wrist to the wall and left her there so he could go get Yugi and Malik back. He managed to get Yugi as he was walking around the palace but ran into a problem getting Malik as he was talking to the high councilman. Yugi's father gave up on Malik for a while and took Yugi back to his house.

"You'll pay for this! Seto will have you killed for kidnapping his slave! What do you want with us anyway?!" Isabel yelled at him.

He slapped her across the face before saying, "Quiet wench! It's none of your business what I'm planning!"

He chained Yugi to the wall as well before he left again. Isabel suddenly got the idea to call out her monster when he came back and explained her plan to Yugi.

            "Yugi, do you still have the card that Yami gave you?" She asked him.

            "Yes, why?" he asked.

"As soon as your father returns, let's call our monsters out to free us and run back to the palace." She explained.

"Okay." Yugi agreed.

Yugi's father shortly returned carrying a resisting Malik. After he chained Malik to the wall, Isabel and Yugi put their plan into action and called out Volcan and Feral Imp. Malik in seeing this followed their lead and called out D. Human. 

"What the hell?!" Yugi's father asked surprised.

"Volcan, burn him to a crisp!"  Isabel ordered.

"D. Human, get us out of these chains!" Malik ordered.

After they were free from their chains and Yugi's father was most definitely dead, it was dark and Yugi asked of his Feral Imp to protect them as the other two monsters were sent back to their cards. On their way back to the palace, a gang decided to attack them; they didn't get too far as they saw the Feral Imp and ran away screaming like girls. They got back to the palace to find Seto and Yami in the throne room and Seto was pacing back and forth.

"Master!" Isabel cried running into Seto's arms.

"Isabel, Malik? Where have you been?" Seto asked stunned.

"Yugi, are you okay?" Yami asked as Yugi walked up to him and called Feral Imp back into his card.

"I'm fine Yami, thanks to the card you gave me." Yugi said as he let Yami hug him.

"Yugi's father got out of the dungeon and kidnapped us. I think Volcan had a little too much fun killing him." Isabel explained.

"Volcan killed him?!" Seto asked incredulously.

"Well, I did tell him to burn the man to a crisp." Isabel answered.

Suddenly Ishtar ran into the throne room and scooped Malik into his arms hugging him tightly; a little too tightly.

            "Ishtar, air!" Malik strangled out.

            "Oh, sorry, I was just worried about you." Ishtar explained.

"So you practically kill me by suffocating me to death?" Malik asked after he was able to breathe again.

"I said I was sorry." Ishtar reminded him.

"Well sometimes 'sorry' isn't good enough!" Malik snapped.

"Alright, you need a nap, bed time." Ishtar said hoisting Malik over his shoulder and carrying him off to bed.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry Ishtar; I don't need a nap really, I'm just grumpy from being kidnapped in the first place." Malik begged to be put down and to avoid his nap.

"Nice try, but you need a nap and you're going to take one; besides, you could use it after your ordeal today. It's late anyway and the others will soon be going to bed as well." Ishtar said as he opened Seto's door and put Malik down on his bed. "Now sleep." He said before leaving the room.

Malik didn't listen and got up to walk out of the room but when he did walk out Ishtar was leaning against the wall ready to escort him back into the room. Malik decided to make a game of it and dove between Ishtar's legs when he went to grab him and ran down the hall. 

"Malik! Get your ass back here!" Ishtar yelled as he ran after him.

"Gotta catch me first!" Malik taunted looking behind him. 

Big mistake; he ran right into Seto who was heading back to his chambers with Isabel at his side. This gave Ishtar time to catch up and he once again flung Malik over his shoulder and walked back to Seto's chamber where he put him to bed and let Seto take care of him should he try to escape again. Isabel couldn't help but giggle at Malik's pouting face as Ishtar left with strict orders for him to sleep.

"Oh, you think this is funny huh?!" Malik snapped at her.

"Yes, but mostly because pouting doesn't suit you." Isabel said, trying to hold in her laughter.

"That's enough you two, go to sleep; Bakura's already sleeping; though I don't see how he could be sleeping with us talking." Seto said as he crawled into his own bed.

"I'd like to sleep while you're talking but it is kind of hard." Bakura snapped sleepily.

"Alright, alright, we'll go to sleep." Isabel said.

After a half an hour, everyone in Yami's and Seto's chambers were sleeping peacefully, and awaiting daybreak.


	6. More Trouble and Weddings

Chapter 6: More Trouble and Weddings 

When the next day arrived and Ryou woke up a bit hazy and decided that he should go clean up so he headed off to the bathing chambers before anyone else woke up. Sarah woke up shortly after Ryou had stepped into the bathing chambers and Yugi and Yami were the last to wake. After they all had a chance to clean up and get ready for the day, breakfast was brought in for them. They ate quickly and quietly and finished eating in about thirty minutes. 

            Meanwhile in the dungeon, Ryou and Bakura's father had found a way out and he was trying to figure out where his sons had gotten to.

'Let's see, that one man that was brought down here twice was in trouble for trying to hurt the high priest's slaves so they can't be with him unless he has more than two.' He thought.

After Ryou and Bakura's father had decided to check around the palace and locate his sons wherever they were hiding, he went into action sneaking around the palace to find out where his sons were and hoping to find them wandering around the palace alone one at a time. He found Ryou walking around with Yugi and went into action knocking Yugi unconscious and grabbing Ryou covering his mouth so he couldn't cry out for help. Ryou did however manage to call for help, telepathically.

'Deepsea Warrior, I need your help, my father escaped from the dungeon.' He pleaded.

With a flash Deepsea Warrior appeared and said,

            "Let the little master go."

"You should be listening to me Deepsea Warrior, or have you forgotten that I'm your master." Ryou's father shot back.

"If I remember correctly, you abandoned me and little master came back for me; so technically I have a new master, your youngest son."

"We'll see about that, once I kill your new master you'll be back to following my orders." Ryou's father said as he tightened the headlock that he had put Ryou in.

"That's enough!" Someone shouted from behind him.

Ryou's father looked to see the pharaoh and next to him was the boy that he had knocked out when he first grabbed Ryou.

"I knew I should've killed you boy." The man said, directing his comment toward Yugi who hid behind Yami's leg.

'Deepsea Warrior, stop arguing with my father and hit him, he's cutting off my air supply.' Ryou ordered telepathically.

Before he could strike though, Bakura came up and tackled his father to the ground causing him to let go of Ryou who was helped up by Deepsea Warrior. Bakura started to beat the crap out of his father yelling and cursing at him the entire time. Yami told Bakura to move off the man and he mind crushed him to prevent him from causing anymore harm. Yami then kneeled down so that Ryou could look him in the eyes and asked,

"Ryou, are you okay? Do you need Sarah to heal you?" 

"No, I'm fine Yami, thanks to Deepsea Warrior; if we hadn't gone back to get his card, I would've been back in my cruel father's grasp." Ryou answered.

Ryou sent Deepsea warrior back into his card and then Yami picked him up and carried him to his chambers where Sarah and Isabel were fighting the council off and preventing them from getting close enough to kill them. The council was still sour about the fact that the royals were falling in love with two slaves and to prevent any slave-royal marriages, they were attempting to kill the sisters off; the only problem was that they didn't know that the sisters were strongest when they were together. Yami got to his room just in time to see the council go flying through his wall.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Yami yelled, glaring down at his council.

"Mi-Milord, we were just trying to get rid of a pest control problem." One of the councilmen answered shakily.

"Sarah and Isabel are not pests and you will treat them with respect, or you will be sentenced to death, which one will you choose?!" Yami stated angrily.

"We'll treat them with respect your highness." They all answered nervously.

"Good, if you attempt to touch them ever again, I'll have your heads, got that!" Yami yelled.

"Y-y-yes milord" They all answered before getting up and scrambling away.

"Yami, what happened to Ryou?" Sarah asked.

"His father came back to hurt him. He knocked out Yugi but he wasn't down for very long, he came to about ten minutes after he was hit and he came to get me. Ryou had Deepsea Warrior out when I got there but it was Bakura who beat him to a pulp before I sent his mind to the shadow realm." Yami explained.

"Yami, you really need to learn to cut back on your explanations, they're way too long." Sarah stated. 

"Isabel, are Malik and Ishtar walking around the palace talking again?" Yami asked changing the subject.

"Yes, why?"

"If Ishtar had known what those council members were planning, he would've told me and since he is walking with Malik, he must not have known their plan." Yami explained. "Isabel, you better head back to Seto's chamber with Bakura so I can talk to Sarah." Yami said, sending them away.

"As for my explanations miss Sarah, I think they are perfectly fine." Yami said walking over to her.

"Says you" Sarah, replied moving away from him before he could tickle her.

"Sarah, you love me and I love you right?" Yami asked.

"You should know if you love me so why are you asking?" Sarah stated.

"You know what I mean; anyway, will you marry me and be my queen?" Yami asked kneeling down in front of her.

"Oh, how romantic" Sarah stated teasingly. 

"Well?" Yami asked.

"Eager are we? Of course I'll marry you, gives me more time to tease you." Sarah answered.

Yami smiled and told Sarah that there'd probably be a double wedding considering that Seto was probably asking Isabel the same thing at that very moment.

            "You read me like a book pharaoh." Seto said, leaning on Yami's doorframe with Isabel at his side.

Two months later the weddings were held and the two couples were married. Yami and Sarah, Seto and Isabel united in marriage from that day foreword. (Hmm, I wonder what pranks will be played on them.) A scream is heard from Yami's room and a very drenched Yami chased his wife through the halls laughing when he finally caught her and tackling her to the ground starting a tickle war. Isabel and Seto just talked about what they think the future will hold and of course Volcan told Seto that if he ever hurt his master he'd be saying goodbye to the chance to have children and possibly to life itself. With that in mind Seto gave a nervous smile as Volcan went back into his card and Isabel started laughing at his expression. Seto tackled her to the bed and gave her a passionate kiss.

**The End**


End file.
